PBS Looking for Inventors in Houston

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Everyone has good ideas about ways to make things better or easier or more efficient. Most people never follow through and for those who do most never find success. Houston Public Radio's Rod Rice reports that on Saturday morning that could all change.

That's when auditions will be held here in Houston for the PBS show Everyday Edisons. This is not like a similar show on commercial TV in which some people are humiliated and others are voted off the show each week until there's a winner. Louis Foreman is the show's Executive Producer. He says this show is not a reality show but is more like a documentary.

"All you have to do is bring your idea to the casting call. If you are chosen the show invests all the money to patent your idea, all the money to develop your idea, all the money to manufacture and produce your product."

The auditions will be Saturday at the KUHT Channel 8 studios on Elgin near the Gulf Freeway from 7AM to 2PM. Foreman says the earlier you show up the better the chance of having the panel of experts assess your idea. And while some may have something to show the experts all you really need is your idea.

"You don't have to come with a prototype; you don't have to have a patent on your idea. You just have to be able to communicate to the judges what your idea is. And then what we're going to be looking for are the twelve absolute best ideas from these five castings we're doing, and then the TV show Everyday Edisons is the process, it shows how these ideas go from just a concept to a commercial product."

In effect everyone selected for the show will be a winner. The casting call here and the other four cities this summer will be for the second season of Everyday Edisons. The first season will air on PBS later in the fall. It will tell the tales of the 14 people selected from last summer's auditions.

Foreman says the Saturday casting call process will take about three or four hours.

"We get people in and out very quickly. And again, we're not looking to humiliate people; we're not poking fun at anybody. We're trying to give an honest assessment of their idea and hopefully find the next great invention here in Houston."